In celebration of twenty years of the Emerging Architecture awards, the AR has commissioned bespoke terrazzo trophies to be awarded to this year’s winners. We lift the lid on this process.
To mark twenty years of the Emerging Architecture awards, The Architectural Review commissioned independent London-based maker Henry Stringer to design and make ‘two beautiful objects’ to be awarded to the AREA winner and the recipient of the Peter Davey Prize – an award inaugurated last year to celebrate AR Editor and Emerging Architecture founder Peter Davey.
The architectural review emerging architecture awards trophy img 8843
Source: The Architectural Review
The brief was short and open – the only restraints were that they were to be a pair of objects, around 300 by 150mm n size, and the words ‘AREA’ or ‘Emerging Architecture awards’ had to appear in some way. We set the challenge that there should be some reference to the idea of a young or developing architect emerging onto the international stage in some way.
In collaboration with Henry, the design evolved: sketches were sent back and forth, the ‘AREA’ logo growing in size and becoming part of the terrazzo pattern rather than the original vision for a small discrete logo.
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Source: Henry Stringer
The prepared casts with lettering and special items of of the terrazzo in place
The design was settled on – a cast terrazzo block, the facets cut and polished with brass letters cast into its surface, reading as part of the terrazzo material. Following conversations with Henry, we agreed that the more expressive and free the design was, the more appropriate it would be for these awards for young, developing talent. ‘The random nature of the terrazzo is such a large part of why it’s a wonderful material,’ Stringer explained, ‘It feels much better to me and I think makes the trophies quite special objects.’ We couldn’t agree more!
The architectural review emerging architecture awards trophy img 8812
Source: The Architectural Review
The trophies will be presented to the winners of the AR Emerging Architecture awards on Thursday 5 December in Amsterdam – we’ll be sorry to let them go!
The winners and the full shortlist of the AR Emerging Architecture awards 2019 are printed in the The Foreign + Emerging Architecture Issue, which you can buy here
